Mythic Stories

There are stories, myths, and narratives. The list could be augmented, but I am not interested in doing so. I was asked what I meant when I said 2 societies were mythically different. I meant that they have different stories in that literature of narratives that touches the life of emotion and religion and morality. A myth is a story which compels one to feels good and evil; fear of evil Darth Vader and rejoicing when the good Skywalker triumphs. I consider true Religion to be wordless; a behavior which is not dependent on words in any way, although it may be modified by words and language, being similar in thios respect to Music. Music is music, and has no need of Language, although we may talk about music and sing along with music as much as we wish. So when I say that Myth depends mightily upon Religion, I am talking about the external carapace of Religion: the words, the buildings, the paintings, the icons, the relics, and everything which stands materially bewteen God and Man. I do not mean all religion is myth. So MYTH is the fund of stories which touch on morals and faith and good and evil. An important characteristic of mythic thought is that it is not self-reflective; it does not subject its own concepts to analysis or valuation. Its library of critical concepts is usually closed to any inputs, although there may be a good deal of innovation of lower levels which do not impinge on the critical concepts; for example, consider Francis Fukuyama's notion of "the end of history" where the USSR fell and History itself was delivered into the hands of the USA. There is the critical concept of the almost divine mission of the USA, itself a very primtive religious notion, and the new twist of "end of history". But Fukuyama's new way of saying things is nothing but cosmetology for the old "chosen people" of God which imbued the American continent since the white man first set foot here. During the Cold War, it was frequently pointed out by conservative thinkers that Marxism was but another form of religion, an ideology of irrational beliefs. Of course, so was the ideology of the West an irrational, yet fervent faith in its own rectitude. Now consider: The American Conservative http://amconmag.com/article/2008/aug/25/00015/ Czechoslovakia on Their Minds Neocon news flash: Hitler invades Georgia. By Leon Hadar Neoconservatives and their useful idiots in the American media have been on overdrive this August, rewinding to their World War II analogies and applying them to the fast-forwarding world of global politics... ...no neocon narrative is complete without Czechoslovakia. Imagine your average Weekly Standard subscriber taking a free-association test and being asked to state the first words that come to his mind when he hears “Czechoslovakia.” Rest assured, he would respond with “Munich,” “appeasement,” “Chamberlain,” or “umbrella.” And let’s not forget “Hitler.” Thus can anyone clamoring for U.S. military intervention in, say, the former Yugoslavia or the Persian Gulf, mount a successful media and public-relations campaign by identifying his chosen victim (the Muslims of Bosnia and Kosovo, or Kuwait, or the Kurds) with Czechoslovakia and associating his preferred “aggressor” (Slobodan Milosevic or Saddam Hussein) with Hitler... This is History or Current Events as distorted through the lenses of Ideology. It is Myth; originally a news story refined by opinion to a mythical story of good and evil. Of course, Hitler is still the devil. That's why people keep calling each other "Hitler!" The Bush Idiocracy, by its profound emphasis on Ideology, came early on the view the world as Myth. At that point, good and evil became distinct, and there was no living together; war must ensue. We are lucky George W. Bush was not president during the Cold War, for his mythic ability, which in his case expressed itself as a perversely innocent childishness, was far greater than any leader on either side during the Cold War. But we are not safe even when Bush departs, for as we read further on in The American Conservative: “The details of who did what to precipitate Russia’s war against Georgia are not very important,” explained leading neocon foreign-policy ideologue Robert Kagan—who insists that he isn’t a neocon at all—in a column in the Washington Post three days after the eruption of hostilities between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. “Do you recall the precise details of the Sudeten Crisis that led to Nazi Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia?” he asked. Kagan, one of the chief advisers to Republican presidential candidate John McCain, wants to kick “revisionist” Russia out of the G-8 and establish a League of Democracies as part of a strategy to contain the growing threat from Moscow. Kagan’s answer to his rhetorical question in his column titled “Putin Makes his Move” (wink, wink—like you-know-who made his move 70 years ago): “Of course not, because that morally ambiguous dispute is rightly remembered as a minor part of a much bigger drama.” Mr. Kagan seems to mix up Knowledge of the Facts with Recall of the Facts. His position is Mythic. History does offer us valuable lessons. However, intelligent human beings are guided, not compelled by History. They are compelled by Myth mixed with Power. (note: this points to the difference between Myth and Religion: when the Prophet said that there is no compulsion in Religion, he spoke of what actually is Religion, not the facade of Religion which uses the force of the State to compel obedience.) A habitat:

House of Nations

further information:

and myth:

Jesse Owens Room in the House of Nations

This takes us to the Myth ( myth does not mean "untrue"!) of America and its race relations. Now you pick up the thread.